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Basher was armed with an 11kg rounded hammer, powered electrically. The hammer was extremely effective at causing trauma damage to robots, while also allowing the robot to self-right. It could even allow the robot to throw itself over or somersault while right-side up. Basher's front scoop was made of HARDOX, and ran extremely close to the ground, however it could be raised up and down before a match to help with driving and it featured its own shock absorbers. Basher's main weakness was its exposed hammer mechanism.

Although Basher did not participate in the main series of Robot Wars in Series 8, Team Hurtz were invited to attend filming of the pilot episode on March 1st, giving them the opportunity to have a head-to-head battle in front of a live audience as part of a camera test.

Basher first entered a four-way melee against Ka-Pow!, Tanto, and Turbulence. Basher was aggressive in its performance, where at the same time, Tanto became immobilised, knocking out its safety link by driving over Ka-Pow! Basher capitalised, and pitted the defeated Tanto, but in the process, overbalanced, and fell into the pit itself, eliminating both robots from the competition.

Due to exclusivity clauses, Basher competes outside of Robot Wars under the name of Beta. Beta was originally built to compete in Season 5.0. of BattleBots, as the successor to their previous success, Killerhurtz. John Reid was joined by George Francis in this season. Beta's scheduled fight had it take on Bender, but the magnets within Beta's hammer were continually pulling up the flooring of the BattleBox, and thus, Beta were forced to withdraw.

Beta with John Reid and Dave Moulds at BattleBots 2015

In 2015, Beta returned to BattleBots once more, in the new rebooted series, where it was drawn up against the eventual runner-up, Tombstone, which had even placed a "Beta Blocker" atop the robot for extra defense against Beta's hammer. Unfortunately, over 25kg of Beta's components were lost during the flight between the UK and USA, and so, Beta was forced to withdraw for a second series in a row, where it was replaced by reserve robot, Counter Revolution. However, Beta's profile was still released on the BattleBots website.

Beta at a Robots Live! event

Beta returned to finally compete in the 2016 season of BattleBots. It did so under the entry of John Reid and Grant Cooper, while 2015 team member Dave Moulds formed Team Carbide and entered Cobalt. In Beta's first battle, it won a close Judges' decision over Lucky, and in the second round it became the second British robot in a row to defeat Overhaul. In the Round of 16, Beta faced and defeated Nightmare via KO with four seconds left on the clock (a robot Killerhurtz defeated 17 years prior) to reach the Quarter Finals, where it lost a close Judges' decision to the eventual champion Tombstone, the robot it was meant to fight in the previous series, after its hammer was dislodged. John Reid does have plans to redesign Beta for Season 3 if the show gets renewed.

In the United Kingdom, Basher competed at a Robots Live event, which was the robot's combat debut. It was permitted to use the Beta name.

In 2017, Basher (under its BattleBots name, Beta) received an Honorable Mention in the The Combat Robot Hall of Fame, owing to its popularity, powerful hammer and Team Hurtz's attempts to enter it into earlier series of BattleBots.[1]